Living fences. Learning to think like a Permaculturist

         Ubiquitous throughout the Costa Rican landscape are fences. Nearly everyone has one as the fence is the clearest demarcation of one's private property. I recently did a Permaculture design for a client with a fenced-in property. As everyone knows, the primary purpose of a fence is to keep animals and unwanted people out of one's property. In the case of this client it is essential to have a fence as the neighboring horses would love to enter the property and devour all of the coconut palms and fruit trees that I have been planting. One central element of Permaculture is that any given element within a farm or home design should provide many functions. The existing fence on the property was built from concrete posts and four strands of barbed wire. This is highly utilitarian no doubt as these concrete posts will last for many years. So you may be wondering what other functions can a fence provide?
           In the process of Permaculturally retrofitting this fence I changed it in two significant ways. First , between each fence posts we planted a post of Madero Negro (Gliricida sepium, family Fabaceae). Here in the tropics we are lucky that certain tree species can be propagated by literally cutting a branch and sticking it in the ground. As a member of the Fabaceae family, Madero Negro has a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria called Rhizobia. The Rhizobia remove gaseous Nitrogen from the air and convert into a form that the plants can uptake. In exchange, the plant provides the bacteria with sugars that it needs to live and reproduce. Thus, plants in the Fababceae family have leaves that are high in Nitrogen. As these posts begin to grow I will be able to coppice them, or prune them every two months and their abundant leaves will provide a Nitrogen rich mulch for the growing fruit trees. Additionally, when one prunes the branches, the trees slough some roots off or allows some roots to die. The roots are where the Nitrogewn fixation is occurring and therefore this sloughing off of roots also imports Nitrogen into the soil. But, that's not all there is to the benefits of this plant. Madero Negro leaves can be harvested and placed around one's home to kill fleas and ticks. It also makes attractive purple flowers which can be cooked and eaten. The trees create both microclimates which contribute to ecological diversity by opening distinct niches and provide an edge effect which also contributes to ecological diversity.
         To compliment the Madero Negro I next added passion fruit vines (Pasiflora edulis family Passifloraceae). As this is the lowland tropics we used the yellow variety known here as Maracuya. This delicious sour fruit makes very refreshing fruit drinks known here as refrescos. Scientific research has revealed that Passion fruit contains a wide variety of compounds with medicinal properties. The lovely passionfruit flowers are an important nectar source for many insects and will help to invite beneficial insects into the landscape. They also attract hummingbirds which are always a welcome site in any landscape
         So, with a slight change of perspective and the addition of two plant species we have changed the fence from providing one function to providing many functions including, biological Nitrogen fixation, creation of edge effect, production of a natural insecticide, edible fruits, beneficial insect attraction and nectar provision, shade, medicine, and the list goes on and on. This is Permaculture folks!  

Coronado Farmer´s Market/Feria del Agricultor en Coronado

Passing time in my wife´s hometown of Coronado, Costa Rica has enabled me to enjoy the fruits of their wonderful farmer´s market. Every Sunday, agricultural producers from around the region reunite to promote their agricultural products to a hungry public. Two years ago a study revealed that Costa Rica is home to some of the healthiest, happiest people in the world. With the quality of fresh fruit and vegetables available at the farmer´s markets around the country it is easy to see why. Rather than buying canned or frozen vegetables most people their fruits and vegetables direct from a local producer. Meals here are typically accompanied by refreshing fruit drink called refresco. The Feria provides a wide variety of fruits ideal for these refreshing drinks. To the new visitor to the tropics the array of new fruits, vegetables, cooked and raw can be dizzying.   The friendly sellers are always eager to answer questions  and vocally encourage buyers proclaiming the quality of their products.
         Know Your Roots!!! Here you can see four different subterranean starchy root crops that are produced here. Standing out prominently are the purple skinned sweet pòtatoes (camotes) Ipomoea batatas seen throughout the country. In the left are two different types of Taro Colocasia esculenta  seen here in Costa Rica. One, Ñampe, has a predominantly white flesh while the other, Tiquisque, is sprinkled a red or pink color. These edible corms have large elephant ear-like leaves and are members of the Araceae family. Finally, the roots on the right are Cassava (Yuca), Manihot esculenta.  
        Eaten commonly throughout Costa Rica is this curious and versatile member of the Cucurbitaceae family, the Vegetable Pear (Chayote) Sechium edule. Baby chayotes like the ones shown in this picture can be steamed and eaten in their entirety. Larger chayotes range in color from deep to light green to white and are used in a variety of Costa Rican dishes. Also in this photo is the Chayote root, Raiz de chayote, which is highly prized and cooked as a vegetable. Chayote the only cucurbit I know of that you actually plant the entire squash as the plant sprouts out of the fruit´s one central seed. Less commonly seen in the markets but also enjoyed are Tacacos, Sechium tacaco a smaller, spikier wild relative of the chayote.
Costa Rica is most commonly known for tropical fruits but the high elevation colder regions of the country produce a wide variety of temperate fruit crops. Here, local producers show off their crops of apples, plums, and blackberries.
Get to know a Costa Rican person and if you´re lucky they will invite you over in the afternoon for a cup of coffee and boiled pejibayes, peach palm, Bactris gasipaes, nearly always served with a dollop of mayonnaise. These nutritious fruits grow on a palm tree covered with long spines. Pejibaye trees can also be managed for production of heart of palm or palmito.
Mangos Mangos Everywhere! Mango season seems to be lasting forever this year in Costa Rica. These mangos are of the large variety grown usually on grafted tres and known as Mangas here in Costa Rica. Its a great time to juice them freeze them, etc as they were selling 4 kilograms for 1,000 colones ($2!!!!)

Tropical Fruit Adventures with Mario Mendez

As a sign of appreciation to my good friends Noah and Alex who have been helping me maintain the farm I decided to take them to see a very knowledgeable tropical fruit grower named Mario Mendez. Mario is an expert grafter and singlehandedly maintains 8 hectares of tropical fruit plus a large nursery. He focuses on Rambutan or Mamon Chino and Avocado but maintains collections of several rare fruits as well. As I drove the coastal highway from Uvita to the sleepy town of San Buenaventura where Mario´s farm is located I recalled my first meeting with Mario nearly three years ago.

It was a hot and humid August day when I headed down to Ciudad Cortez with a couple of friends to visit a property one of them had purchased. As we drove through Cortez smiling faces greeted us at every corner and showing us their bags of Mamon Chinos they had for sale. These beautiful bright red fruits were everywhere and we quickly began gobbling them up. The Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is a member of the Sapindaceae family which includes other delicious fruits like the Lychee (Litchi chinensis) and the Pulasan (Nephelium mutabile) . Its translucent flesh is sweet and juicy and grape like in consistency. We were hooked immediately and it occurred to me that I had not yet planted Mamon Chino at Finca Carolina. So I began asking the Mamon Chino sellers where I could buy some good Mamon trees. Quickly, I was informed that in the town of San Buenaventura lived a man named Mario with lots and lots of Mamon Chino trees. So it was off to San Buenaventura where more Mamon sellers excitedly pointed us in the right direction to find Mario. We did eventually find Mario and sampled his delectable fruits and headed back to Uvita with several Rambutan trees to plant at the farm.We were impressed by his orchards and vast knowledge of tropical fruit production

         Mamon Chinos do not yield in Southwest Costa Rica until August so there were no Mamons on this visit but Mario always has a few surprises for the tropical fruit lover. First he let us sample guava fruit from his Brazilian guava tree (Psidium guavaja, Family Myrtaceae). Its bright pink flesh was oh so inviting and delicious. Guava fruits are high in antioxidants, Vitamin A and C, folic acid, and many minerals.
            Next, Mario proudly showed us his Borrojo tree in fruit. Borrojo (Borojoa patinoi, Family Rubiaceae), head fruit or fruta cabezona is native to Western Panama and is cultivated on small scale in Panama and Southwestern Costa Rica. Mario says that just a small piece of this fruit is enough to flavor an entire pitcher of refresco or refreshing fruit beverage. Borrojo is rumored to have aphrodisiac powers and is used in folk medicine to treat impotency. You heard it here first! The plant family Rubiaceae has yielded such important plants as coffee (Coffea arabica, Coffea canephora) and the source of the anti-malaria medicine Quinine (Cinchona pubescens).Many of the understorey shrubs that one encounters in the rainforests of Southwest Costa Rica belong to the Rubiaceae family.

Finally, Mario showed off his large crop of Acerolas or Barbado Cherries. This small, delicious cherry like fruit is packed with Vitamin C. Acerola is being added to a variety of juices in order to boost their Vitmain C content. One of the small fruits is supposed to contain the Vitamin C of four oranjes. This sprawling shrub is a great choice for the home grower in Southwest Costa Rica as it is hardy and fruits prolifically. Acerola, (Malpigia emarginata), is a member of the Malpighiaceae family which contains other plants of ethnobotanical interest like the nance, (Byrsonima crassifolia) a small yellow fruit enjoyed throughout Costa Rica and beyond and Banisteriopisis caapi which is used in the preparation of the South American visionary beverage ayahuasca or yaje.

Earthen Oven Construction

During the past week I had the pleasure of building an adobe oven with a group of eager Permaculture students. We built the oven as part of the Practicum portion of the Permaculture Design Course that we just hosted. I highly recommend to anyone interested in building their own adobe oven to pick up Kiko Denzer's book called Build Your Own Earthen Oven (Hand Print Press, 2007). This book guided another group of friends and volunteers and I to construct an oven in 2004 at Finca Carolina. Anyone familiar with Finca Carolina has probably tasted the delicious pizzas that come out of that adobe oven.
Based on years of experience with our own adobe oven I realized two design improvements that would improve functionality and flow of the oven. One was to have a grill in close proximity to the oven where I can put the hot coals after removing them from the oven. Secondly, I realized that a reinforced doorway is needed in order to prevent damage to the clay from placing and removing the door.
We were lucky enough to have an existing outdoor kitchen with a grill and a concrete floor large enough to house this large oven. A local builder helped us to first construct a cinder block box. The box was filled with rocks, concrete debris,gravel and then finally sand. On top of that sat a floor of refractory bricks onto which we marked a 36" circle. This would be the eventual diameter of the oven. We then made a dome of wet sand and covered it with wet newspaper.
Upon that we began to add our various layers of mud. The first layer was a 5" of a clay and sand mixture. See Kiko's book for details about determining correct proportions. This was followed by an insulating layer the same thickness and components but with straw. Finally, the whole oven and cinder block box was plastered with an earthen plaster.
After about two weeks the oven will be ready to begin burning small fires inside. Once the oven is dry and hard it will be ready for pizza and bread baking.